Banbury Evangelical Free Church

Serving God in Banbury

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Welcome to Banbury Evangelical Free Church

Banbury Evangelical Free Church was founded in 1984, as a Bible-based, Christ-centred congregation seeking to proclaim the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve Christ in every aspect of our lives, both as individuals and together.

Monday, 30 September 2013

For our church
anniversary services yesterday, we had two excellent messages brought
to us by Mr Peter Cordle from Lower Ford Street Baptist Church,
Coventry based on John 15.4, 5.

In his first
message, he addressed three questions:

What does
“abiding in Christ” mean? To answer this, he drew on the
picture that Jesus himself gives of the vine and the branches?

Why is this
so important? - Two reasons:

(a) In order to
bear fruit (v.5);

(b) To show that
we are true Christians (v.6) – for if we do not abide in Christ,
we have no fruit that will remain.

How do we
abide in Christ? - In four ways:

(a) By faith;

(b) By receiving
Christ's love (v.9);

(c) By having
God's word in our hearts (v.7)

(d) By keeping
Jesus' commandments (v.10) – being completely yielded to the will
of Jeuss for our lives.

In the evening
message, Peter considered 4 results arising from abiding in Christ:

There will be
fruit (v.5)! It may not always be the outward, visible fruit that
we often look for. It is God's prerogative to decide what fruit
there should be. But there will be fruit, above all, in increased
likeness to Jesus;

There will be
pruning (v.2). This may be painful, but if we are to be more like
Jesus we need to have the growth of self-centredness,
self-importance, self-righteousness, cut back;

There will be
joy (v.11). Although we often think of Jesus as the “Man of
sorrows”, he was also one who knew deep joy (Ps.45.7b);

There will be
a community of love (v.12). We were encouraged to be on our guard
against the devil who hates to see such a community in church life,
and to continue to be governed by love.

The messages were
both heart-warming and challenging. They should be available on the
website very soon. I strongly recommend taking the time to listen to
them!

Saturday, 11 August 2012

Jenny & I were
on holiday, visiting the Traction Engine Show held near Pickering,
north Yorkshire. Towards the end of our time there, just after I
had taken a photo of Jenny standing next to a vintage car, we decided
to have an ice-cream. I put the camera in its bag slung over my left
shoulder, and we moved to a nearby ice-cream van. There was no queue
at the time, though almost immediately as we moved to place our
order, I was conscious of a man in the queue standing behind me. In
fact, he was almost too close, and I almost stepped aside to let him
go first so as not to be rushed in making our choice. However, I did
not do so: I ordered our 2 ice-creams – 2.30 each! – and handed
over a £5 note. The vendor – deliberately, I now believe – gave
me change of two 20p pieces and one 10p. As I turned away, I was
momentarily confused by the fact that the change was wrong, said to
Jenny, “He's not given me enough change”, whereupon she looked at
the coins in my hand and said, “No, he's given you too much”. In
the brief moment of distraction, the “man in the queue” behind
me, whisked the camera from my shoulder and was gone. We did not
even notice it happening! I turned back to the ice-cream van, said
to the vendor, “You gave me too much change” and gave him back
10p. I noticed a strange smile on his face, but assumed it was just
embarrassment at having given me the wrong change.

When, 20 minutes
later – yes, it was at least as long as that! – we realised the
camera was gone (it was after we had left the show and were on our
way back to the car), it took a while to work out what had happened.
Initially, I felt somewhat rueful at having given back 10p to a man
who, I am now convinced, was complicit in the theft of a £100+
camera. But on reflection, overall, I believe I came out the richer
from the transaction: I lost a camera and gave back 10p, thereby
preserving a good conscience – he and his accomplice gained my
camera (and got their 10p back!) but incurred a guilty conscience.

Monday, 31 October 2011

“There’s probably no Dawkins.Now stop worrying and enjoy Oct 25th at the Sheldonian Theatre.”This was the slogan on 30 Oxford buses for 2 weeks in October.It was correct – Professor Dawkins was not at the Sheldonian Theatre on the occasion of Professor William Lane Craig’s lecture on the subject, “Is God a delusion?”, though a chair was provided for him in the event of a last-minute change of mind.However, many others were there – the 1,000-seater auditorium was almost full.

Dr Peter Millican, Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, and himself an atheist, chaired the meeting very fairly and with good humour.Dr Craig, Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, California, gave a fine lecture addressing Professor Dawkins’ supposed demolition of various arguments for the existence of God.He dealt with the cosmological (everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence), moral (you cannot explain morality without God), teleological (the argument from design) and ontological (a method of a priori proof) arguments.Members of the audience without a basic background knowledge of philosophy may have struggled at some points, but Dr Craig very courteously but effectively demolished Dawkins’ arguments, and showed that while the Professor may be a leading biologist, he is at best an amateur philosopher.

In Professor Dawkins’ absence, following the lecture a panel comprising an agnostic, a theist and an atheist each gave a 10 minute response.The weakness of the responses of the agnostic and the atheist was quite significant – the agnostic, himself a Professor or Philosophy, said we really couldn’t know, and the atheist, a Professor of Medicine, simply argued that God’s existence had not been proved (essentially an agnostic argument!).Dawkins would have been disappointed with their performance – but at least they had had the courage to attend!Meanwhile, the theist, Stephen Priest, tutor in Philosophy at the Roman Catholic Blackfriars Hall, gave an entertaining cameo suggesting that Dr Craig needed to have addressed three further questions: “Why is now, now?”, “What is being?” and “Why is something you?”He also observed that if people had an experience of God, there would be no need to spend an evening debating God’s existence.

In his follow-up response, Dr Craig gave short shrift to the agnostic and atheist, but took the time to deal with Mr Priest’s arguments.He felt the first question was simple: now is now, because it follows what was before – a more profound question is simply, why is now?With regard to the second, he argued that God is a being, because he has being, while the answer to the third, which Dr Craig re-framed as “Why do you exist?” was simply, “Because God made you, and has a purpose for your life and you had better find out what it is.”

A short break followed, during which the audience had opportunity to submit questions to the chairman for Dr Craig or the panel members.One of the questions from the floor referred to Professor Dawkins’ claim that Dr Craig defends genocide: in response Dr Craig gave a masterly defence of the Biblical account of the conquering of Canaan, exonerating the Bible from such a charge.Regrettably, the question time was cut short at 9.45pm owing to lack of time.

At the end of the meeting, the chairman asked for a show of hands as to how many of the audience were sure there is a God, how many were convinced that there is not, how many did not know, and how many did not care.The overwhelming majority believed that there is a God: however, the failure to carry out such a survey at the start of the meeting leaves unresolved the question as to whether Dr Craig had overwhelmed doubters by his sheer force of argument or whether he had simply been preaching to the converted throughout!

Monday, 23 May 2011

Harold Camping, already identifiable as a false prophet from his earlier predictions that the world would end in 1994, has again been exposed as a charlatan, when the rapture which he predicted for 21 May failed to materialise.While most people were not surprised (though Mr Camping himself is said to be “somewhat bewildered”), and while it is easy to write him off as a crank, it can be argued that men like Camping are dangerous.His failed prophecy concerning the end of the world can leave people all the more complacent with regard to any need to be ready for the return of Christ.

Addressing this issue yesterday, I preached from Jesus’ words in Matthew 24.44a.Notwithstanding Camping’s false prophecy, I pointed out that there is indeed still a need to be prepared for the end of the world (or the end of our lives, if that event happens first):

Because, whatever cynics may say, Jesus is coming again;

Because His coming may be sudden;

Because His coming will be unexpected by many;

Because no one knows when it will be;

Because His coming marks the end (of this world);

Because His coming marks the beginning (of the next);

Because Jesus Himself tells us to be ready!

Concerning what it means to be ready, I outlined 2 aspects:

We need to be at peace with the One who is coming, so that we know we can expect his smile and not his frown when He comes;

We need to be looking forward to heaven.Not living each day as if it were our last (that is impossible in practice), but living each day such that, if it were our last, we would have nothing of which to be ashamed;

Turning to the practical question of how you can be ready, the following points were made:

You need to seek the Lord today, at a time when He may be found (Isaiah 55.6, 7);

You need to repent of your sins.God’s goodness in extending your life until now should lead you to this (Romans 2.4);

You need to trust in the Saviour God has provided, before He who is preached as Saviour now returns as Judge;

Seek a close walk with God that you may anticipate with joy His appearing.

Harold Camping is a false teacher who’s made himself & his followers look foolish.But don’t let his foolishness cause you foolishly to reject what Jesus has said.There is a day coming when the Lord will return, and gather all those who are ready to be with him in heaven.Will you be there?

Saturday, 26 February 2011

I am writing this in Nairobi while visiting David & Liz Anderson who are serving as missionaries in Kenya. My fellow-traveller, Pastor Chris Hand of Crich, Derbyshire, and myself have been made very welcome and are greatly enjoying the Andersons' fellowship and hospitality. We flew out overnight Thursday night 24 February and hope to return to the UK on Wednesday 2 March. Although “Christianised” more than some other countries there is a great need for the clear preaching of the gospel in Kenya, and for the gospel to be demonstrated by the lives of those who profess to believe it. David's great concern is for the raising up of and training of indigenous pastors to lead the churches in this country, as well as for the spiritual needs of the many children in this predominantly young country. Please pray that this work may go forward and prosper.